Robert Whittaker went from calling Josh Hokit a moron to handing him a lifetime subscription, and the thing that flipped him was Hokit drooling baby food down his own chin. That might be the most honest scouting report anybody has filed on Hokit all fight week, and Whittaker got both halves of it right.
Ariel Helwani posted the clip on X Monday night, and Sherdog ran with it a few hours later. Whittaker, the former UFC middleweight champion, opened with a line nobody could have scripted for him: “I thought Josh was a moron, right?” Then came the conversion story. He said watching Hokit commit to the role so heavily, “drooling on himself with that baby food,” got him to subscribe on the spot. “Anyone that can go that deep into a role has my subscription. I’m a fan now,” he said.
I’m with Bobby on this one, and I didn’t need the baby food to get there. I will always ride with a fighter who picks a character and refuses to break it. The worst thing in combat sports promotion is the guy who spends three weeks talking about ending somebody’s career, then shows up to the face-off with a sheepish grin and a fist bump. Hokit doesn’t fist bump. He drools.
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The Bit Doesn’t Clock Out
The part that should worry Hokit’s opponents (and delight the rest of us) is that the act doesn’t seem to have an off switch. Spinnin Backfist posted a clip on X Monday captioned with Hokit going right into character when he saw Poatan. That’s a man who sees one of the biggest stars in the company and immediately decides it’s time to perform.
And then there’s the Gable Steveson thing, which looked a lot less like theater. In a clip from Tim Welch that Dovy shared on X over the weekend, Hokit said Steveson tried to reach out his hand like they were friends, and Hokit’s answer was “f*ck no, we ain’t no friends.” He added that Steveson was lucky, saying “it would be bad, for real” if Hokit didn’t have a fight coming up. The rest of that rant got nastier than it needed to, and I’m not reprinting it. But manufactured beef doesn’t usually refuse a handshake when nobody’s filming the handshake.
So the guy is committed. Whittaker sees it, I see it, and apparently Poatan saw it up close.
Where Whittaker Pumps the Brakes
Here’s where the former champ earns his money as an analyst. Being a fan of the show and being a believer in the fighter are two different subscriptions, and Whittaker only bought one of them.
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“Josh hasn’t had that lengthy résumé just yet,” he said. He even saw the Hokit fans coming before they could get to the replies: “Don’t get so personal. It’s not personal. I’m just looking at it on paper.” And then the line that should end up on a T-shirt: “If I had to bet my house on it, I’m not betting on Josh. I’m gonna bet on Ciryl.”
That’s the correct read, and I respect that he said it out loud while still praising the guy. Plenty of fighters-turned-pundits either pile on the loudmouth or cozy up to him because he’s fun. Whittaker did neither. He gave Hokit full credit for the act and zero credit for a record he hasn’t built yet.
The joke buried in the middle of his answer is the one I can’t stop thinking about. “I think drooling baby food on yourself gets you a title shot,” Whittaker said. He’s laughing, and so am I, but look at the matchup. A heavyweight with what Whittaker calls a thin résumé is sitting at the top of the UFC Brasil graphic for UFC 334 across from Ciryl Gane. The bit already got Hokit something. Whittaker’s just noting, politely, that a seat at the table and a win at the table are separate events.
Saturday Pays Off the Act, or It Doesn’t
This is the part I love about fighters who go all in on a persona. The character writes checks, and the fight cashes or bounces them in public. Hokit has spent fight week refusing handshakes, going into character around the biggest names in the building and smearing baby food on himself on camera. If he beats Gane, every one of those moments turns into legend. If he doesn’t, he’s the guy with food on his shirt.
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Gane, for his part, seems content to let the other guy do the talking. Dovy’s “fight week” post on X was about as loud as the Frenchman has gotten in the sources I’ve seen, and that contrast is half the reason this fight sells.
UFC 334 goes Saturday, Nov. 14, with UFC Brasil listing Amanda Nunes, Caio Borralho, César Almeida, Melquizael Costa and Bia Mesquita on the card alongside Gane vs. Hokit. In Brazil it streams on Paramount+, prelims at 6 p.m. Brasília time and the main fights at 7. Whittaker’s house is safe in my book. Hokit gets roughly 25 minutes on Saturday to make him regret keeping it.
